Sven Ulreich
Last played in the Bundesliga in June 2020 when it wasn’t snowing and half of the Bayern team didn’t have Corona. Which brings you to the topic of the day. While Manuel Neuer had to find a transmitting station in quarantine in the Maldives with a four-hour time difference in the middle of the night, Ulreich saw a team that had been put together, which fell into collective hibernation before Florian Neuhaus’ 1-1 and which at 1: 2 Stefan Lainer did not get up to the header. The first ball flew through his suspenders, but he tends to be unable to do anything with either goal. Showed a “newer” action when he parried the free-standing Embolo before the break with a flapping left arm (photo).
Joshua Kimmich
There he is again. And the fact that his person wasn’t a big issue before the game was probably welcomed by everyone from Kimmich to the general public. All in all, it has been a little … a lot, the last few months. He was “very fit” after his corona-related lung infiltration, said coach Julian Nagelsmann and the impression was: That’s true. At least if you take the circumstances into account.
At the beginning of the game he messed up the ball twice, but was back in his mode by the 20th minute at the latest, and was close to being over-motivated. Had 12.5 kilometers on the clock at the end of the game, also the most ball contacts, almost equalized. But towards the end it was correspondingly flat.
Niklas Süle
Opened his game with a perfect long diagonal ball on Serge Gnabry, who initiated the 1-0 from Robert Lewandowski. Then continued the game with an action that tended to be too casual, which favored Florian Neuhaus’ 1-1. You can see: Sometimes absolute judgments are difficult, often things just go this way and that.
Benjamin Pavard
Keyword absolute judgments: The header against Lainer before the goal he has to lead differently. Corner kick, short post – as a responsible professional central defender, you have to come as close as possible to the ball. Instead with a grandiose rescue tackle against Florian Neuhaus, which, however, would not have been necessary because of a previous handball. But it was still spectacular (see photo).
Marcel Sabitzer
It was already nasty von Gladbach that they absolutely wanted to win the ball at the Austrian. Sabitzer has not had a good time at Bayern so far, a very unfortunate game against Augsburg (who won the ball from the Austrian) was followed by a calf injury. Now the personnel situation brought him to the left-back position, which was very unfamiliar to him, and he played there as if this position was very unfamiliar to him: Not very dynamic, sometimes a bit lost, tried difficult balls where simple ones would have been better. Moved a little sleepy towards the flank giver before the 1-1 draw, at least with a few important duels towards the end of the game.
As I said: he had to play on the left as a right-footed player, he comes from an injury, he has no run and with Malik Tilmann truly no experienced partner on his side – but he should still have a different claim to himself. Nagelsmann said apologetically after the game that Sabitzer was flat after 60 minutes (original sound: “mouse dead”).
Marc Roca
Came into the second half of the season with a letter of recommendation from two very good games and did not play a very good game for the first time. But it wasn’t easy either, he was often alone in the center and the Gladbachers, especially the strong Koné and Neuhaus, came into his room at the right moment and made life difficult for him.
Jamal Musiala
Wore Corentin Tolisso’s shirt in the second half for reasons that remain to be clarified. Which leads to the question of whether you are allowed to do that and whether Sven Bender was sometimes wearing Lars Bender’s jersey. Or the other way around. From there, Musiala played again in the eighth position, which was also unfamiliar to him and that he is not a duel monster and therefore can hardly help Marc Roca – that was known. Forward as always with special actions, in the 56th minute Yann Sommer prevented his equalizer with a strong save.
Thomas Müller
A long drawn out and suffering “Neeeeeeeiiiiinnnn” echoed through the empty Munich stadium when Yann Sommer fished the ball, which Müller wanted to tip over the line after about an hour. Harmonized wonderfully with Robert Lewandowski throughout the game, usually such days always end with at least two or three goals. But the Gladbach anti-fear effect is now even greater than the Müller effect.
Serge Gnabry
Fired the first bang on the goal of Yann Sommer, who could only let the ball rebound. Also otherwise shot out of all situations during the game, but it was like meeting distant acquaintances: something always came up. Exhausted himself, crossed tirelessly, in the end even played right-back and, given his workload, would have been a candidate for a substitution if Bayern had been able to substitute.
Malik Tillmann
With a total of 83 minutes in the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and Champions League a veteran compared to the substitute bench. What do you need to know about him? 19 years old, 1.87 meters tall, born in Nuremberg, is considered an offensive talent on the threshold between amateurs and professionals. Had to help out as a left winger, made no mistakes, but also no memorable action. But it was also due to the fact that Bayern (understandably) were more likely to look for Serge Gnabry in the attack.
Robert Lewandowski
All are missing, but the best player is fit. Several times I had the opportunity to make this unusual game his own game. First read Nico Elvedi and scored the 1-0 with a hammer in the short corner. Elvedi danced again shortly afterwards, but then flicked from the goal line to the long post. After a nice assist, which Thomas Müller almost scored, he hit the bar again with a long-range shot. Perhaps the best game of his that will not be remembered.
Substitute players
At 16 years and 15 days is Paul Wanner (top right in the picture) the youngest player in Bayern history and the second youngest player in Bundesliga history after Youssoufa Moukoko (16 years and one day). He played a good pass and of course that would have been an even better story. It also came Lucas Copado, 17 years old, son of Francisco Copado, nephew of Hasan Salihamidzic and author of a shot in the 83rd minute.